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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (93665)	11/9/2001 3:11:41 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

Compaq Condemns EMC Middleware Nov 09, 2001 (ComputerWire via COMTEX) -- Compaq Computer Corp is developing its own storage software that will rival EMC Corp's WideSky middleware initiative, which it has denounced as proprietary and harmful. The company has also accused EMC of trying to mislead the market into believing that Compaq is backing WideSky. The statements from Compaq came on the same day that it announced a deal with EMC to swap API access to storage hardware, a deal that Compaq said in no way represents an endorsement of EMC's WideSky software. WideSky, which was announced two weeks ago, is middleware on which EMC is promising to base cross-vendor management tools. "WideSky is just proprietary middleware. We believe it is actually counter-productive for any one party to offer something like this. It's straining credulity to think that Compaq is going to sign up to an initiative where EMC is going to be the central management point. Everybody wants cooperation and interoperability. That's one thing, but endorsing WideSky is quite another," a spokesperson for the company said. EMC's announcement yesterday of the API deal with Compaq (CI No 4,290) was accompanied by statement that could easily be interpreted as implying Compaq backing for WideSky. The statement was headed: "EMC Expands AutoIS/WideSky Initiative with Compaq Agreement," and said the deal with Compaq will, in combination with WideSky, allow EMC software to manage Compaq hardware. An alternative to WideSky will be announced by Compaq in the "not too distant future," the spokesperson said. "Unlike the EMC software, this will not not be a strictly Compaq deal." The spokesperson refused to discuss whether it will therefore involve other vendors - although presumably it will in order not to be strictly Compaq initiated. IBM Corp yesterday declined to comment on any such collaboration with Compaq, and ComputerWire was unable to contact Hitachi Ltd. An EMC spokesperson said the company had not intended to imply that Compaq is backing its middleware effort. The spokesperson added that WideSky could have been made to support Compaq hardware with or without the API swap, but that access to the controllers on Compaq's arrays via an API will make life far easier for EMC. So if the deal made it easier for EMC to create its "proprietary and counterproductive" middleware, why did Compaq sign it? "Compaq's DNA is about openness and interoperability for its entire technology stack. Ultimately the rising tide of interoperability will lift all boats - and maybe it will lift ours further than the other," the Compaq spokesperson said. By Tim Stammers tim.stammers@computerwire.com Computergram International: Issue 4291, November 9, 2001